Melvin D. Riddick
Assignment #3 Draft
Building a Secondary Mathematics DE Course
EDT 635, Summer 2009
Building a Secondary Mathematics Course (Initial thoughts and Plans)


I. Analysis of Course DE Structure
- face to face meetings for specific # of cycles per year
-cycles consist of nine days
-cycles rotate students from academic schedule/courses to shop schedule/courses
- distance in DE instruction will be minimal in face to face meetings

II. Analysis of available Technologies
- Message board present on CSDE server
- TI 83IIs Calculators available in class sets
- MS office products on CSDE server
- Geometers Sketchpad software is available on server
- Internet access is available on server
- Automated assessment applications created by CSDE that delivers, grades and stores assessment data
III. Analysis of needed software
- 30 Workstations for in class student use of:
-MS Office products
- daily or as needed internet usage
- concept podcasts
- webliography and webquest research activities
- collaborative messaging and discussion of mathematical concepts between students and instructor
- collaboration of students and instructor when students are not in academics
- access to class assignments, assessments and course requirements form anywhere students can access the web(great for students who need extra help, time, parental progress checks
- dealing with absenteeism
- provides record of class activities and students’ accomplishments
IV. Research in Designing DE courses

V. Constructivist Theory Applications
- collaborative assessments
- collaborative learning and dialogue
- student centered approach to all activities

VI. Design of Activities and Assessments
- Curriculum and classroom activities must be consistent with:
i. Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) Mathematics standards and District-Wide Trimester Assessments
ii. State of Connecticut Aptitude Performance Test (CAPT) Standardized Mathematics strands
iii. Approved textbooks provided by CSDE

- must be fair in Providing all students time and accessibility to course activities


How to build a Mathematics DE course:
1.) Lesson Delivery
-Podcasts: Video, audio
- Animated text of mathematics lessons
- automated practice exams
- automated exams and data collection

2.) Lesson and Practice collaboration

- Wiki and Web board usage for student collaboration on facilitator directed problem solving and theoretical discussion
- Student centered classroom discussions and practice
- experiment with varied deadlines for posting and content
- automated assessments
- record keeping of all student data
- parental and administrative retrieval of assessment and student progress data
- student podcasts for community usage explaining topics learned
3.) e- portfolio
- Compilation of mathematics concepts taught
- e-files compiled of Individual student assessment data to all curricula activities
4.) Technology requirements
- What is needed to successfully facilitate good Mathematics DE.
5.) A platform where all these goals maybe tied together into a seamless delivery model
- Google
- Wikipedia
- WEbBoard
- MS Office 2007(with an emphasis on Mathematics word processing in MS Word Equation editor
- Maybe the following summer courses: Web pages and Servers and Middle School Technologywill help with the building process. But, we have to make it out of 635!
Moving past these equipment difficulties I believe that a facilitator should almost be seamless in a good online course. My book finally arrived and I now can say from my reading I was thinking facilitation is a huge job and maybe best shared. Maybe students should take on different roles says the text. I guess the facilitator should decide what works best for them. However, the responsibility for discipline and motivation falls on the instructor/facilitator.
Motivation by way of writing is a very interesting idea and seems to be a difficult task to m, in good or bad writing. I try to motivate young learners every day face to face and experience difficulties.
I truly feel that all teachers must strive to obtain some level of DE in their teaching just because it is environmentally responsible. I am thinking of this because with the right tools I would be able to facilitate mathematical responses online and store them as e portfolios for parental and administrative review.
By the way I have come to believe that this is where my slowness in reading comes from! A Chapter in a mathematics text maybe five pages but may take you a week to read. You must read it over and over again. Anyway, back to the how students would respond
Not very easy to do and for that reason to begin I may deal with getting lectures, assessments and collaboration